Material Detail

This resources looks like it would be good to familiarize students regarding the history of race in a Sociology of Race and Ethnicity course. One limitation is that it focuses only on race rather than also ethnicity. I would also like to see this formatted as a PowerPoint. My preferences is to keep students within the learning management system rather than sending them to external websites. I like to reduce the number of clicks to accomplish course work and I think an embedded PowerPoint would do the trick. I would also like to see the website updated to reflect on the election of Obama and how his racial background challenges and reinforces our understanding of race.

This is an interactive lesson on the history and social construction of race. The activity requires basic computer skills for navigating the self-paced presentation and completing the assessment. The material is appropriate for introductory courses including social problems and upper division courses on race and ethnicity. The presentation provides a thorough overview on the evolution of race as a categorical marker in society. This exercise gives students a foundation about the complexity about how personal truths develop into socially accepted facts that set boundaries for social life. The activity may be assigned as an individual exercise or completed with the entire class as a basis for discussion or lecture.

This is an informative site that offers various disciplinary perspectives on race throughout time. The interactive elements are fun and effective for breaking up what would otherwise be a text-heavy module. I would have liked more opportunities for interactive exercises that allowed users to "test" the information they just read. This would be a good resource to integrate into any introductory sociology course or course on the sociology of race.

Technical Remarks:

I found this site to be unique and FUN. These facts were different than the traditional diversity numbers and statistics. I didn't check the facts and one multiple choice question was not answered but I will check the history, science, etc. books. This is a great presentation form to emulate.

While this wasn't a comprehensive site or module it was a useful resource. It may be better presented as a sub site.

Technical Remarks: